Dean Smith

[Essexvillian]

Just watched the game after avoiding my phone whilst at work. We can not play Barkley and Bert in the same team as they are both luxury players. I think Barkley will maybe be replaced by sansom, Bert has some quality about him, but I’m not sure we are at the stage where we can afford to have that sort of player starting every game. I think I would be more tempted to play el ghazi or trez instead, even for just work rate and simple play and supporting matty cash.

[Tomaszk]

I think we've absolutely dominated all four games v Burnley since we came up.

Thumped them.

And it's one win, one loss and two draws.

That's annoying isn't it.

I hate them.

[sharkyvilla]

Like with Bamford, it had to be Ben bloody Mee didn't it.  Prick.  Anyway it's unfair to be too harsh on the lads, just one of those nights.  Should have put it to bed in the first half.

[Keyblade]

Still getting over the one. No way we should have lost this, West Ham and Brighton. That's between 3-9 points thrown away. So frustrating.

[Demitri_C]

One win in four is it? Pretty  crappy form we havs hit

[maqroll]

4 hours ago, Essexvillian said:

Just watched the game after avoiding my phone whilst at work. We can not play Barkley and Bert in the same team as they are both luxury players. I think Barkley will maybe be replaced by sansom, Bert has some quality about him, but I’m not sure we are at the stage where we can afford to have that sort of player starting every game. I think I would be more tempted to play el ghazi or trez instead, even for just work rate and simple play and supporting matty cash.

We seem to win games that AEG starts. But I think Smith starts the same team on Saturday. 

[Demitri_C]

Great Southampton next another defeat looms. Deans report vs Southampton = 3 defeats

[eholm]

10 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

Catalogue of errors cost us that game. Fuming.

Yep. This is typical of solid mid-table teams who are not yet at a top six level.....which is precisely what we currently are. We will play some great football and win more than we lose but still be susceptible to some poor results and in-game inconsistency. Simply due to quality of players in our squad. 

I have gratefully accepted that we will be looking at a 10th-12th finish and am delighted with the progression from last season. We are not yet strong enough for top 6 but if we maintain the astute recruitment and keep our better players that overall squad quality will continue to improve and last night’s type of result/performance will be happening less. 

Edited January 28, 2021 by eholm

[eholm]

9 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Had some time to chill out and reflect on the game a little bit. I've firmly been in the "I think we'll finish midtable" camp all year, and that in itself would be massive progress from where we were last season.

So with that in mind, we'll have more games like today throughout the season and we'll probably still comfortably finish mid table. The frustrations come because we're so close to being a really good team. Just need a couple more solid additions and we can then start thinking about pushing for Europe or whatever. Smith has still done an unbelievable job with us, and we're playing some of the best football I can remember at times. Rome wasn't built in a day. 

10000000% Completely agree mate. 

[tom_avfc]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

One win in four is it? Pretty  crappy form we havs hit

I mean this is true but doesn’t have any context whatsoever. Of those three defeats the first two are away against the current top two in the division. In both of those games we’ve lost to poor decisions late on in the game.

We then absolutely battered a Burnley team that somehow found a way to score three goals from a game where their expected goals was less than one.

Looking purely at results it looks like poor form. Looking at performances and the standard of opposition we’ve played I think we’re doing fine.

It’s annoying that of the seven games we’ve lost this season we’ve had pretty awful refereeing decisions in about 4 of them and dominated the majority of them too.

I’d say that if we continue to play the way we have been and add some additional quality in the Summer we’re in a very good place. The football we play under Smith is so much better than anything I’ve seen us play under previous managers. I’d say that Smith deserves better than us looking purely at results and saying we’re in crap form to be honest. 

[Dante_Lockhart]

If Dean makes those subs earlier I'm adamant we hold on and win/draw. Trez coming on for Bert on around 60mins would have made a huge difference. But yea, we've got to take those chances and put them away. Didn't help that Pope was on form though.

I feel that we've been spoiled with the start we had and the attractive football we've been playing. We expect to win every game, which is certainly the right mentality, but we need to accept there will be defeats - No matter how they come. I'm 100% certain we stay up this season, which I would have bit your hand off for last season. Anything more than 14th this season is amazing improvement.

[eholm]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

We have to stop crosses coming too, 3 resulted in 3 goals from the left tonight.

 

Agree but I think this is our preferred defensive tactic. By that I mean, our FBs tuck in when out of possession and we accept that there will be more crosses coming in but we have faith in EK/TM to clear the cross. I think this is a clear tactic from DS and, to be fair, overall it’s been pretty effective. 

[eholm]

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

But I think Smith starts the same team on Saturday. 

Not sure on this. Half way through this 6 game blitz and I think the fitness numbers may starting to drop a bit for some players. Wouldn’t be surprised to see changes in midfield and out wide on Sat. More solid set-up I would imagine. Too soon for Sanson to start, though, I would have thought. 

[Kiwivillan]

I should be more upset about the result than I am. I've reflected on it and still feel pretty positive from the way we played for most of the match. So much progress, good owners, good infrastructure. It's a marathon, not a sprint

[osmark86]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Great Southampton next another defeat looms. Deans report vs Southampton = 3 defeats

feels like it's time to change that

[osmark86]

3 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I should be more upset about the result than I am. I've reflected on it and still feel pretty positive from the way we played for most of the match. So much progress, good owners, good infrastructure. It's a marathon, not a sprint

oh for sure, I was a bit angry yesterday but that was just because I couldn't believe how we let a few of those goals in so easily and how flukey their second goal was. It was just a frustrated reaction. I still think that we played better football and looked more dangerous and we've been great defensively in other games. we just need to learn to keep our cool sometimes, but what team doesn't have weaknesses they need to work on?

Yesterday was an odd day. Somehow Man Utd loses to Shef bloody Utd as well. I'm sure they're pissed off as well as I'm sure Liverpool fans were when they lost against Burnley. These things happens and I've seen more than enough to be encouraged this season. The game yesterday was still enjoyable for the most part and we play really good football. that progress is a bloody blessing after years of absolute tripe so I'm not going to let one result get to me. we're a bloody good footballing side that is on the upward trajectory and I'm loving everything Villa right now.

[S-Platt]

Add me to the loving Villa right now crowd. 

Rome was not built in a day you cannot go from relegation candidates to Europe without a few bumps in the road.   

We play lovely football all the players have improved from last year. 

Every defeat is a learning curve.  We will win some lose some for the rest of the season and then add to the mix with new players to improve again.

It's a great time to be a Villa fan best in over 10 years enjoy the the ride.

[VillaCas]

11 hours ago, Rightdm00 said:

Something has to change there. It was comical how easy that first goal was for Burnley. 

Zonal marking stops more goals than M2M, but when you concede one it looks worse - Barkley’s job was to disrupt the run but he didn’t. 

[tom_avfc]

1 minute ago, VillaCas said:

Zonal marking stops more goals than M2M, but when you concede one it looks worse - Barkley’s job was to disrupt the run but he didn’t. 

Very much this. It's a bit annoying because we concede from a corner and everyone assumes its the defenders faults. However the only two goals I can remember from corners this year were this one where Barkley didn't stop the run and West Ham where Douglas Luiz didn't stop the run. We get it right 9 times out of 10 but as you say it does look pretty bad when people don't do their job properly.

[WallisFrizz]

I think he might bring Trez in for Traore on Saturday. I’d be ok with that, mix it up a bit. Smith was commenting in the last day or so that they are not doing that much in training because of the intense run of games, that it was mostly about playing and then recovery. For that reason, I think we won’t see much of Sanson until he properly has chance to integrate and train  with the rest of them. I’d expect him to be in the bench tho and maybe make an appearance.